


Curiosity

by orphan_account



Series: Mutation [3]
Category: Assassin's Creed
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Mutants, Break Up, F/M, Mutant Powers, Secrets, Telepathy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-24
Updated: 2013-05-24
Packaged: 2017-12-12 21:25:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/816217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There is a darkness in Haytham Kenway's mind. Kaniehtí:io knows she will regret it if she prys, and that she will regret it if she leaves it be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Curiosity

 

Kaniehtí:io cannot bring herself to trust Haytham, not fully. She can hear the darker echoes of his thoughts and intentions, she knows he is not being entirely honest with her about his organisation and their fascination with the sacred cave. That's why she hesitates so long before taking him there, and truthfully she should have simply vanished after using him for killing Braddock. But he found her once, he could find her again, and broken promises do not lend themselves to arguments for mercy.

 

And there is the added complication: despite the shadow lurking in his mind (which she does not dare touch, she does not want her suspicions to be confirmed), she finds herself falling in love. She knows the same is happening to him, she can hear the gradual changes in his thoughts, feel the shift in his heart. 

 

What, then, is the harm in a relationship? He is not completely honest, but neither is she. 

 

"I can tell when people are truthful," she had told him. "I can sense a little of their true intentions."

 

It is not a lie, she does have those abilities. But complete honesty with the outsiders, the whites who seek to destroy all she loves and holds dear… that has only lead to horrible things. She had, after all, been captured by slavers, heard their intentions to gang-rape her once they reached Southgate Fort. And Haytham had saved her, and she knew that his intentions were much more innocent than those of her captors. She grows to like Haytham when they meet again, like his good intentions and the snarky thoughts he has (though she doesn't like the jealous, lustful thoughts his subordinate has toward herself and Haytham).

 

That darkness, though. That darkness had been what made her run from him the first time. She hopes that perhaps in the future, he could find the courage to be completely honest with her, and the dark echoes would no longer be so scary. When she misses her monthly blood, she knows that she must find out what the darkness and shadow are. She knows she will not be able to raise a child with him, stay by his side (his strong, comforting side, she loves pressing her small body against his larger frame) unless everything is made clear.

 

A few nights later, after he has fallen asleep after a truly wonderful evening (it is not late enough in the pregnancy for such activities to harm the child, and Haytham has memorised Kaniehtí:io's sensitive spots and exactly what makes her writhe beneath him), she looks into his mind. The sleep makes it easy to sift through his mind, find what she wants to know. 

 

_Daddy's dead. Master Birch is here now. Mama hates me and Jenny's missing. I want mama to give me a hug. I want my daddy back. I need my daddy back!_

 

_"Go to America and find the storehouse."_

 

_Blood gushing through my fingers, hot and red, bright even in the darkness. The assassins are no more, wash it all off before seeing Ziio again. She can't know._

 

_"Has your Native wench told you anything more about opening that door? No? This is a waste of time, sir. She's useless."_

 

Kaniehtí:io shudders when she leaves his mind. Haytham sleeps on, unaware of what she's just done. 

 

She's seen more than just memories, there is knowledge in her head that seeped in while she was busy looking through Haytham's mind. Pi is 3.141 and many other nunbers Haytham never bothered memorising. Killing a man from above is most effective with a jump of about two metres and a hidden blade engaging at an angle of 120 degrees approximately 1.59 seconds after leaping. Romans invented central heating. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales were cautionary fables for the bourgeois of Norman Britain. The fastest route from Exeter to York takes two days by horse. Haytham is a Templar and the Order mean to destroy her way of life. 

 

Haytham is a Templar and he does not mean to hurt her or her people at all but some small part of him knows that her culture will be extinguished if their storehouse is opened and even though he loves Kaniehtí:io, he loves his Order more. He can neutralise mutant powers if he chooses, and he has special eyes that are remnants of Those Who Came Before. He does not suspect that Kaniehtí:io's powers are more powerful than she led him to believe.

 

Kaniehtí:io fights the urge to cry. Her worst suspicions are confirmed. 

 

She leaves quickly, and writes him a note in his journal.

 

_I know what you are and what you are after. Do not look for me. Do not approach our sacred land again. You shall not live to see the next sunset if you attempt either. Wolves will feed on your heart and you will wish you had not been born at all._

 

Afterwards, she often wonders what Haytham did when he woke up alone the next morning. He would've gone back to Boston, certainly. Would he have drowned himself in alcohol and prostitutes? Doubtful. Perhaps he ran back to England? Would he have simply thrown himself into work? That last possibility seems most likely, and it is the reason she lies awake at night and checks the cave each day. Thankfully, her fears are unfounded, and the cave is always as it has always been.

 

Their son is beautiful when he is born, and she can see a little of his father in his face. Though it is frightening when young Ratonhnhaké:ton wakes her up one night, crying and begging her to "stop the colours" and she looks into his mind to find that he has inherited his father's special sight, her very greatest fear is one she does not live to see come to pass: that one day the same darkness in Haytham's mind will be also in his.

 


End file.
